Write a book of personal stories in 3 easy steps

You’ve been thinking about it, but like most people, you don’t know where to start. Or you think you couldn’t write a book. This is the easy way to do it… at least IMHO.
Let’s say you decided to write the story of your life. Let’s take that as an example…

Step 1.

If you’re writing by hand, you’ll need a three-hole ring binder that you put a 10-tab index set into. Add a few pages of lined paper to each section to get started.

The 10-tab sections are for dividing your life into 5-year increments. That adds up to 50, of course, and if you’re over fifty, however, add as many more tabs as you need to add up to your whole life. Write the years on the tabs, beginning with the second index tab, example: Present, then 1 to 5 (1947-52), 5 to 10 (1952-57), 10 to 15 (1957-62, etc.) Hold section 1 for comments and starter notes that you want to insert but don’t know where yet.

If you can use a computer, this will be much easier when you review your writing to edit and reorganize your thoughts. If you are writing by hand, remember that it will take longer to rewrite on new pages, each time you make changes and additions, etc.

It might be a good idea to get someone to help you if you are not a computer user and dictate to them. If you are writing by hand, double space your lines. This makes it easier for you to insert further ideas or corrections etc.

If you’re typing in a word processor, you can use the single line to the end where you just hit a button and your work becomes double spaced for your manuscript.

You may want to write your story to publish around the world or just for your own family, friends or grandchildren. So keep in mind who your readers will be.

Write as if you are speaking to that audience.

If you’re using a computer, which is much easier to edit etc, your sections will be in the form of files. Each file will cover a 5 year increment, in the same way as the previous folder tab sections. Use the same headings as your index tabs.

Don’t start your first section (or chapter) with “I was born in…”. Start your first section where you are now, currently. What happened to you recently that your readers might be interested in, depending on who they are.

It may be the birth of a grandchild or the death of a spouse or parent. Whatever it is you want to talk about in the present. It may be the addition of a puppy. It can be the completion of a study program or a degree. This makes it much more interesting for your readers. Use something that is exciting or important to you in your life that you really want to share.

Simply summarize it, and then “return” to your earlier childhood at the appropriate time, in this chapter or the next. And you can pick it up at the end again to complete the present moment of your life.

Just write whatever is on your mind, from your heart. Don’t worry about organization, grammar, or anything at this point. Write your memories in each of the 5-year incremental sections as you recall any important event.

Once you are half empty of ideas, go back to your first section and develop your current situation. At the end, think of a good point to pick up your next section and make a bridge, a transition to the beginning of your next section (e.g. “So here I am, in the hospital, thinking about the more peaceful times of my childhood” .

Then pick up in the next chapter a point in your childhood where you want to begin this section. Example: “I remember a beautiful warm spring day when I was about 4 years old…”.

Step 2.

Do that for each of your sections (chapters). This could be a time in your childhood related to your last thoughts, perhaps when the illness for which you are now in the hospital began, or it could be an explanation or expansion of your life in an earlier stage that you mentioned in your first section. .

This could be a developmental event in the first 5 years of your life or it could be in another 5 year increment like when you were a teenager or when you got married in your thirties or whatever. Use the information you already entered in your 5-year increment sections for that time period.

Keep writing, arranging thoughts and events, until you cover that time frame in your life. Don’t worry about not remembering everything, just write down those things that are important in this writing segment.

When you’re ready to move on to another 5-year increment, do the same to move on to the next section. Give each section a name appropriate for that time period. You can later change those temporary file/section names to appropriate chapter titles.

Keep doing this for each 5-year increment section until the end. As new thoughts come back to memory that belong in different sections, go to that section and insert your writing there. Even if it’s just a few thoughts, write them down now to develop them later, otherwise you’ll forget them.

End your last section by completing your story with the current events you started with in Section 1. For example, “…but today, I got good news from my doctor that I’ll be able to go home tomorrow. And I’m ready to go.” a new life”.

Conclude with an inspiring word that might be helpful to someone else, a lesson you’ve learned from your experiences, a dream you may be pursuing, whatever…example, “Yes, I’ll take some time to smell the roses, continue.” “. family picnics and getting to know my neighbors a lot more.

Step 3.

Once you’ve written everything you have, go back and edit, rearrange, organize, change as you see fit. Then go through all the work again and edit some more. Eliminate anything that is redundant or unnecessary. Read it as if you were your audience. Break up long, confusing sentences into shorter, more elegant sentences.

Use action verbs that show instead of adjectives and adverbs that tell (example: “The big wild bear came at me like it was going to tear me to pieces.” Replace with “The killer bear pounced on me viciously”).

Then, go through it again and edit some more. Really. The secret to good writing is to “edit, edit, edit” until there is nothing left to edit. You can ask a few people you trust to read it and comment on it. Listen to them and incorporate into your work the criticisms and ideas that seem constructive to you.

Once you’ve done this and are happy with your work, look for appropriate titles within each section that you can use to name your chapters. Find a phrase that describes the main idea or point of your section.

You may find that it is necessary to split some sections to better formulate two chapters. You are then ready to type it into your manuscript ready to take to your printer/producer. So go ahead, start now. Have fun./dmh